Much research has been funneled into developing new methods for harnessing energy from plant matter and producing biofuels that will replace the fossil fuels we have relied on for years. Unfortunately, even if America changed all of its petroleum refineries to biomass refineries and committed wholeheartedly to biofuels, our dependence on fossil fuels would be far from eliminated.

That’s because biomass is not infinite — not even close.The Department of Energy released a study in 2005 — and updated it earlier this year — that estimated the potential biomass available for annual harvest in the U.S. Taking into account current and anticipated future production capacity, availability and technology, the study examined the impact of biomass on U.S. energy consumption.

Here are the numbers: The nation uses about 20 million barrels of oil per day, which comes to around a billion tons every year. (The Department of Energy study has come to be called the “Billion Ton Study.”) Based on the average molecular formula and energy content for oil, the total energy usage comes out to about 45 quintillion — that’s a billion billions — Joules of energy per year.

That number is hard to conceptualize, but it makes more sense when compared with the energy we could harness from biomass: The Department of Energy estimated in annually harvested, non-food biomass, the U.S. could harvest about 1.5 billion tons. Using the molecular formula and energy content for biomass, this comes out to about 23 quintillion Joules per year, only half the amount necessary to counterbalance our oil dependence.

So what does this mean? Basically, even if we utilized every conceivable biomass resource — a feat that itself would be remarkably difficult to manage — we would only be halfway to meeting our energy independence goals.

Of course, one might ask, why use carbon-based fuels at all? Look at the strides we’ve made in human technologies for energy capture: solar panels, wind power, nuclear energy.

Where do these fit in?

In many situations, these alternatives show great promise. Although incredibly expensive, solar panels work beautifully to capture and store energy in stationary, stable places — like, say, the rooftop of a hospital.

Windmills, although considered by many to be a blight on the landscape, are churning out electricity for cities across the nation. And despite the common fear of disaster, nuclear power plants currently account for about 6 percent of the world’s energy.

However, there are many areas in which these technologies are both impractical and unsafe. One obvious example is that of transportation. And that’s exactly the area biofuels research has targeted.

The limits imposed by biomass availability do not require abandoning biofuels as an energy alternative. Rather than embarking on a quest for the ideal plant matter, research should focus instead on developing methods for enhancing the energy output from molecules we already have access to. Here at MSU, James Jackson and his team in the Department of Chemistry are doing just that.

“We’re shifting our understanding of the role of biomass,” Jackson said. “We should use the carbon from plants, but learn how to retain it by upgrading the energy content.”

This means getting energy from human technology, rather than trying to harness it from the plants themselves.

Jackson pointed out that biomass is not inherently energy-rich: “Plants have no real driving force to be efficient at capturing solar energy.” They have generally unlimited access to sunlight; what holds plants back are nutrients in the soil.

What plants have evolved to do, better than any human technology so far, is capture carbon, and that’s what researchers need to take advantage of. Jackson and his team are looking at chemical processes that change the molecular basis of biomass and increase its energy density. For example, by “lopping off” oxygen atoms from natural hydrocarbons, they can make them both lighter and more energy-rich.

Of course, lopping off atoms isn’t so simple, and the lab’s research exploring new electrochemical processing techniques requires significant time and hard work.

This approach, which seeks to reduce the limits of biomass and thus make biofuels a more viable avenue for future energy usage, should be more widely embraced. Research needs to focus on practical methods, grounded in chemistry, and MSU is leading the way.

Craig Pearson is a State News guest columnist and a biochemistry junior. Reach him at pears53@msu.edu.